2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has reversed his statement regarding the alleged collapse of the national grid.
Gatekeepers News reports that after the blackouts experienced in some parts of Lagos State on Saturday, Obi took to X to express his thoughts on the recurring issue.
The politician said the incessant fall of the grid, which happened 12 times in 2024, has caused ‘untold setback and hardship’ for Nigerians.
He said that despite the country borrowing over $3.23 billion in the last four years to fix its electricity problems, the recurrent occurrences of grid collapse have continued to mar the nation’s power sector.
Obi was then criticised by many Nigerians for not making findings on the issue before reacting to them.
Subsequently, he reversed his stance, saying his initial comment was based on reports from reputable media platforms.
In a follow-up post on X, Obi acknowledged there was no grid collapse following clarifications by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on the matter.
TCN had clarified that the outage was caused by tripping of Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which shows that the claims about grid collapse were fake news.
He wrote, “Following my earlier message regarding the alleged collapse of the National Grid, which was based on reports from reputable media platforms, I have since learned that there was no such collapse. Instead, the incident involved the tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which affected the Lagos axis.”
“I appreciate the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for their prompt clarification on the matter.”
“I sincerely hope we will prioritize enhancing our infrastructure in the power sector and remain committed to improving power generation to meet the growing needs of over 200 million Nigerians.”
